I don’t know what a language approach is, but it could be the study of a foreign language or a second language, when you still aren’t proficiency in that language and you are in the process of building the language.

I think that there are a lot of ways to promote a meaningful use of language, but I strongly think that apart from learning the grammar, the vocabulary, and so on, We have to give opportunities to use the language, interaction between friends, teacher, family, classmates, … Using the language is the way to do it meaningful. 

Integrating language in content mean that we have to give to the language an important role while we are teaching or studying. For example, if we are learning mathematics, apart from making the operations or calculations, we can ask to children to explain how they reach to the solution, using language as a part of the subject and learning different types of texts, widen their vocabulary and developing different skills.

I have never heard about the School Language Project, but as it names sais, I think that the School Language Project focuses on the language as a part of the curriculum and give enough importance to work on it in every subject, because the language is the only tool we have to communicate. 

As a prospective teacher I think that is very important to deal with this type of content because we need to have a global view of the children development, and in the Infant Education is when they start to have experiences with it and we have to give them a successful and meaningful experience to keep on working with the language while we did with other important subjects as well. I think that this content is a positive contribute to my professional profile, because as a teacher I must have different resources and with the experience I will create my own material.

Language approach is connected to the learning of a language through its context. For example, when you decide to go in an exchange to a city where a majority language is English in order to learn English much better.

In class I would promote the use of a language focusing on everyday life tasks, vocabulary, event, rituals, music, films or any other action that can promote the use of language. In addition, we could promote the use of English through the parents in some aspects of their life connected to English speakers’ culture.

Integrating language in content means when you use a foreign language as a vehicular language in any subject of the school or when in school foreign language is thought one or more subjects.

School Language Project is the project where is taken and express all decisions around the use of languages in school, including the decision to integrate language in content or the language approach.

This type of content will help to get along on our job as efficiently as we can do it, as well as the children to get a good proficiency level in foreign language level.

These decisions in language term aspects are very helpful in the development of our knowledge in terms of language. As well, we will be glanced to contrast information about language acquisition thanks to the experience we get through this contributions in classrooms or other contexts.

How could we promote a meaningful use of language?
I think that we can promote a meaningful use of language encouraging interaction. A language is a communication tool, so people who learning a new language, should be able to talk, read, listen ... in that language. So, I think the best way to encourage that meaningful learning is using it. 

What does integrating language in content mean? Could you give any example?
Integrating language in content mean that you learn a language through different content. For example, when you teach science in English, apart from learning science content, you are also developing language competences. 

How are these concepts related to the School Language Project? 
I would say that School Language Project defines which languages are taught and how. There are different ways to teach a language and depending on the vision or mission of the school, language competences would be developed in one way or another. 

Why do you need to deal with this type of content as a prospective teacher? How does it contribute to your professional profile and development?
I think that this type of content is important because they are different strategies that are useful to encourage a quality education for the students. I think that every teacher should know different strategies and then they decide which one to use, depending how works with the students. So, is very important to have a wide range of strategies, resources and methodologies. 

 

I do not know really what is a language approach, but I guess that it is the way in which the language is acquired. For example, it can be the strategies which are used to teach the language in the school or the methodology for the language teaching.

A meaningful use of language can be promoted using it in daily context. Using it to learn things that are far from the children knowledge and environment will be a no meaningful learning of the language. 

Integrating language in content refers to the teaching of foreign language through a subject such as nature. So, it is a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both, content and language. 

These three things are integrated in the School Language Project. In the School Language Project, we can find how will be the language teaching process, which are going to be the methodologies to teach the languages and which will be the languages. 

As we are teachers, there is a necessity to deal with this kind of things. Every day we are promoting a meaningful use of the language and the knowledge because if it is used in that context, the students will used the languages and the knowledge in their own futures. I think that the language teaching methodologies are changing and we are integrating the language more than it was in the past. So, the things that were previously explain we need to take them into account and continue with the progress of the language teaching.

I don´t know what means language approach, is the first time I had heard about it. But, it could be the relation between the linguistic context and a language. So, for example, is not the same to learn Euskara in the Basque country or in Nevada. I think that, the context helps in the learning process and the language approach can have a relationship with it.

I think that we can promote a meaningful use of language using language as a tool for day to day. Students must see the language as a useful thing in their life. Because of that, we should motivate them, give opportunities to interact and use their closest topics. As the theory of Txepetx says, the use, motivation and knowledge of a language are linked. Some people will start motivated, while others knows the language, but this cycle is useful to everyone.

·         What does integrating language in content mean? Could you give any example?

Integrating language in content mean to use a language as a vehicular to work in any subject. For example, I studied social science in English at school.

I think that in the School Language Project all the things that are deal with the methodologies, competences while teaching a language are going to be set up. So, integrating language in content also will be mentioned there.

·         Why do you need to deal with this type of content as a prospective teacher? How does it contribute to your professional profile and development?

I think that a teacher must be conscious and well informed about those contents. Because teachers aim must be to promote a meaningful use of language.  We must adjust to the sociolinguistic context of the place we are teaching and use different strategies to motivate our students. I think that, professionally we must be always learning new things and as I said before, adapting to the context. As a saying mention: renew or die

I think that a language approach is how people acquire their knowledge of the language. There can be different approaches like for example: structural approaches where students learn the rules, grammar and syntax and memorizing them, they can get a high level in a language. Or functional approaches where the spoken language is emphasized over grammar or rules.

I would promote a meaningful language using it in everyday activities. It should be used to learn things that are interesting or familiar for children, for example in daily routines or to talk about different topics chosen by the students. When students are interested in a topic they are motivated to acquire language to communicate.

Integrating language in content means that different subjects are taught and learnt in a foreign language. Language is seen in real-life situations, and they learn it in a natural way. 

I think that in the School Language Project there have to be reflected all the concepts related to languages.  Every school has to analyze their linguistic context and make a language project according to their needs. In this project they will have to consider the languages they are going to use, how are they going to use each etc.

Nowadays all the schools use at least three languages in their curriculum, and as teachers we have to learn different strategies to teach languages successfully so all that content is very helpful for us.

An approach is a way of looking at teaching and learning. This way, any language teaching approach is a theoretical view of what language is, and of how it can be learnt. An approach gives rise to methods, the way of teaching something, which use classroom activities or techniques to help learners learn.

The communicative approach is the best-known current approach to language teaching and task-based teaching is a methodology associated with it. Other approaches include the cognitive-code approach, and the aural-oral approach (audiolingual method).

We could promote a meaningful use of language including interactions that would actually happen in real life, things that are relevant to the student and that they can be passionate about, things that students will use in real life communication/interactions.

At the moment of teaching the language has to be a goal so that the language is useful to the learner and there’s a clear reason for why it needs to be learned. It always needs to have a real world application so that students connect to it and envision themselves actually using that material in a conversation outside of the classroom.

“Content and language integrated learning” has been introduced recently as a common term for a number of similar approaches in Europe to teach content subjects through a foreign language. Moreover, the term CLIL is now the most commonly used, however, especially since a definition has been found which seems to be the most acceptable:

In other words, CLIL is a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of content and language with the objective of promoting both content and language mastery to predefined levels.

In this way, within a CLIL framework content and language are learnt in integration. The two subjects – a language as English and a content subject like history or geography – are related to each other and dealt with as a whole.

The School Language Project is the document where the aspects related to the language learning and teaching in the school are collected. Therefore, as any language teaching approach is a theoretical view of what language is, and of how it can be learnt, has to be written in the SLP. In order to the language approach, CLIL (Content and language integrated learning) represents the most significant contribution from research in the field of second/foreign language acquisition to the field of language teaching in the contemporary education, promoting the meaningful use of language.

As I said in the paddle before, I think the society is changing and, as a consequence, also the learning-teaching process at schools. This content allows me to learn about a teaching-learning way that is new for me called CLIL, which I hope will facilitate me creating a meaningful language environment in the classroom where students will learn languages motivated. For that, this methodology will have to be included in the School Language Project, which maybe will be my responsibility one day. That’s way, it will be necessary for me to know how I can integrate CLIL in the SLP and therefore, is important to understand the theoretical view of what language is, and of how it can be learnt (language approach).